This Green Hairstreak butterfly was feeding on the tiny Cotoneaster horizontalis flowers outside my kitchen window for long enough for me to grab my can o'beans video camera and grab a few shots. As is often the case with butterflies, it flew off when the camera came too close, but returned again and again, eventually resting on some fading Spanish Bluebells and gently moving its folded hind wings rhythmically for reasons unclear to me. It is a Lycaenid butterfly, so it flutters by like one of the blues - I was delighted when I caught sight of the characteristic green under-wing when it settled, giving a definite identification - it is the only green butterfly species in the UK.
Despite my best efforts at #wildlifegardening, the Green Hairstreak Callophrys rubi is not a species I see very often in my garden in Stroud, Gloucestershire. This one arrived just in time for #UKLepidopteraWeekend - an online celebration of butterflies and moths - and also forms the 68th #BrightenYourDay video to help connect people to #nature while in #Covid19 #lockdown. Hope it makes you want to turn off your screen and pop outside to see what kind of lepidopterans are fluttering by, day or night...
For more info on this and other species, see
https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/green-hairstreak